Science Island

(Randy Vicar Recordings/Last Gang; US: 1 Mar 2011; UK: 8 Mar 2011)

The Two Koreas: Science Island

I often find it best to avoid press on any given new band and to listen with minimal preconceived notions. When I fail to do this, findings often hamper my listening experience. Such was the case with the Two Koreas. When I learned the band had more than one music critic among their personnel,the admiration that came from my initial listen was clouded over with cynicism. Discovering that the Two Koreas have coined their own genre tag for their music (“Glacial Garage”) did little in halting my waves of disparagement. However, if you overlook this fact as well as the sometimes cringey song titles (“Hotel Christiana” and “Disco-Slave Songs” to name a few), then you’ll most likely have a lot of fun listening to Science Island. The album is brimming with energy and aplomb, and the guitar squall of “Midnight Brown” is so immense that you can almost forgive guitar boys—be they critics or not—for their love of “noize.”